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delicious hand iced biccies to order on line - say it with icingFri, 31 Jul 2015 17:11:41 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2zoe-and-allans-weddingIthttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/zoe-and-allans-weddingit
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/zoe-and-allans-weddingit#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 09:47:03 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=12833http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/zoe-and-allans-weddingit/feed0how-to-make-a-boutquet-of-biscuit-flowershttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/how-to-make-a-boutquet-of-biscuit-flowers
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/how-to-make-a-boutquet-of-biscuit-flowers#commentsWed, 01 Apr 2015 09:41:58 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=12830http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/how-to-make-a-boutquet-of-biscuit-flowers/feed0Chai tea bag Biscuit Recipehttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/chai-tea-biscuit-recipe
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/chai-tea-biscuit-recipe#commentsFri, 06 Mar 2015 09:30:48 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=12246Here at Biscuiteers HQ we agree that the best conversations with our Mums happen over a cup of tea and a generous amount of biccies. If you are planning some quality time with Mum this weekend, why not bake a batch of our chai tea biscuits, which are perfect for dunking. String and all! You could even substitute the chai tea leaves for classic Earl Grey or floral Jasmine. Or if tea isn’t your thing, a little lemon zest and poppy seeds work wonderfully.

Dipped in white or dark chocolate, your speckled little biscuits are perfectly dunkable in a deep cuppa, just don’t leave it to ‘brew’ for too long!

1. Start by grinding the tea leaves until they are very fine and dust-like. Either use a pestle and mortar or a side of a spoon, otherwise use a coffee grinder attachment on an electric blender.

2. Put your butter, tea and sugar into a bowl and mix until it it’s pale and fluffy.

3. Add your egg yolk to the butter mixture until everything is smooth and combined. Then add the flour and mix together until the mixture forms a smooth dough.

4. Cut the dough ball in half and roll into two disc shapes, before wrapping in cling film and pop in your fridge, to harden, for half an hour. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees (fan assisted).

5. Roll out your dough on a floured work surface until a little thicker than a pound coin, you can use our very easy method for rolling dough or just sprinkle some cornflour on the work surface and rolling pin.

6. Cut your biscuits out using a square (or rectangle) shaped cutter, then diagonally cut the two top edges off to create the ‘tea bag’ shape. Using a cocktail stick or drinking straw, poke a hole through the top (ensuring it is completely open) and lay onto a lined baking sheet, a little apart from the other biscuits, to leave room in case the biscuits grow in the oven!

7. Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden with a slightly crisp edge (but not too brown- remember they will continue to cook once they are out the oven). Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely.

8. Whilst the biscuits are cooling, melt your chocolate on a medium heat in a pan until it’s just melted and glossy. Pour into a bowl, and leave until the next step is complete.

9. Using your string, cut small sections and thread through the holes in your cooled biscuits, tying a small knot at the top and cutting away any leftover string. Dip your biscuits into the melted chocolate and lay on a baking tray until the chocolate has set. We recommend placing some baking paper down on top of the baking tray, so the chocolate doesn’t stick. This way you’ll easily be able to take your creations off.

Making your own Mother’s Day biscuits? We’d love to see your bakes. Let us know your flavour combinations on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or in the comments below!

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/chai-tea-biscuit-recipe/feed0Great gifts for Mum this Mother’s Dayhttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/great-gifts-for-mum-this-mothers-day
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/great-gifts-for-mum-this-mothers-day#commentsWed, 04 Mar 2015 16:48:37 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=12130Aren’t mums the best? Every Mum deserves to be treated for all those noses wiped, lunches packed or heart-to-hearts over a cup of tea. We’ve got the perfect gift guide this Mother’s Day for spending some quality time with Mum.

Stitch in Time

If your Mum’s skills go far beyond mending the odd button or hem line, then take her to London based sewing classes at ‘Sew Over It’. Dress making classes are divided into a range of ability levels where you can learn to make anything from curtains to a 1960’s coat!

If she’s already a wizz with the sewing machine, our Personalised Sewing Kit tin contains biscuit versions of all the bobbins and threads she’ll need, and the tin makes a perfect storage box for those spare buttons.

Floral Frenzy

If your mum knows her pansies from her peonies, take a look at Zita Elze’s flower school. Professional, aspiring and amateur florists alike travel from all over the world to learn Zita’s unique approach to flower arranging; designing the bouquets by emotion, which results in some exquisite arrangements.

Don’t worry, if they’re more of a foodie than floral, our Mother’s Day Flowers biscuit tin is a bloomin’ marvellous way to say thanks for being the best, no watering required…

Sweets for my sweet

For Mums who don’t mind getting their hands mucky (with flour) and explore their creativity in the kitchen, we happen to love Bread Ahead’s French patisserie class which teaches the secrets behind making everything from pain au raisin to pain au chocolate.

For Mums who have a sweet tooth but prefer pint sized treats, our Personalised Patisserie biscuit card, hits the spot. Why not use the biscuit to send an edible invite to a special get together?

Tea for Two

We know more than anyone, the best conversations with Mum happen over a hot cuppa tea and biccies. Spoil her with the ultimate tea and biscuits with our Mother’s Day Tea for Two biscuit tin, filled with dainty teapots, cups, sugar bowl and milk jug plus a personalised tea pot biscuit. Best served with lashings of tea on a Sunday morning.

Treat her to a creative icing experience at our London based Biscuiteers Boutiques. We hold regular icing classes and on the first Tuesday of each month we open our doors in the evening for our Icing Lates, the perfect way for her to relax and flex her creative muscles.

Mums the word

For more fabulous ideas for Gifts for Mother’s Day have a look at all of our pressies, but it’s simple really, just don’t forget to say…

Happy Mother’s Day!

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/great-gifts-for-mum-this-mothers-day/feed0Apres Ski biscuitshttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/apres-ski-biscuits
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/apres-ski-biscuits#commentsTue, 24 Feb 2015 18:11:36 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=11918After a full day on the slopes, nothing is more inviting than a cup of ‘Vin Chaud’ and something sweet. If you’re trying evoke that Apres Ski moment, our Austrian Kipferl biscuit recipe is just the fix you’ll need. To turn these biscuits into edible gifts, pack the biscuits in clear cellophane bags and tie with vintage ribbons. You’ll be able to whip them up quicker than you can say Edelweiss!

Ingredients

Makes approximately 25 biscuits

For the Biscuit:

150g softened butter (room temperature is fine)

70g icing sugar

8g vanilla sugar (you can make your own very easily by mixing the seed from one vanilla pod with caster sugar)

100g fine ground almonds

150g plain flour

50g cornflour

For the Coating:

100g home made vanilla sugar (which can be made using the seeds from 1 vanilla pod, 50g of caster sugar and 50g icing sugar) Or cover them with white chocolate and a pistachio crumb.

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C/Gas Mark 3 and line two baking trays with non-stick parchment paper. Put to one side.

2. To make your vanilla sugar, use a sharp knife to score the vanilla pod in half. Using the blunt side of the knife, score the vanilla bean to scrape the seeds out. Mix the seeds with 50g of icing sugar and 50g icing sugar. You can do this very easily by placing all ingredients into a jam jar and giving it a really good shake!

3. Start your biscuits by mixing the softened butter in a large bowl with the vanilla and icing sugar.

4. Once this has formed a smooth paste, sift in both the cornflour and plain flour, then the ground almonds.

5. Roll the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.

6. Once the dough has chilled for 1 hour, roll the dough into a long sausage shape approximately 2cm thick.

7. Portion the dough into several sections, each weighing around 20g.

8. Using a small amount of cornflour on your hands, roll the portions into a long sausage shape, around 7cm in length and 1cm thick.

9. Place the sausage shape on the baking tray and shape into a crescent shape making sure the end are slightly pointed. Leave enough room on the tray, between each crescent for the dough to slightly expand.

10. Bake in a middle shelf for approximately 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits are golden in colour. Be careful not to overcook, the high fat content from the almonds means they catch easily, and the biscuits will continue to cook once they are out of the oven.

11. When the biscuits have been out of the oven for around 5 minutes, dust liberally with your vanilla sugar.

12. If you want to dunk the biscuits in white chocolate, use a Bain Marie to melt your white chocolate.

For the ultimate Apres Ski experience (in biscuit form of course) sledge on over to our Apres Ski Collection, a perfect gift for snow bunnies with all the vintage charm of the slope without having to venture off piste!

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/apres-ski-biscuits/feed0Our visit to Great Ormond Street Hospitalhttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/out-and-about/our-visit-to-great-ormond-street-hospital
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/out-and-about/our-visit-to-great-ormond-street-hospital#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 15:27:17 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=11979Here at Biscuiteers we are very proud to support Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and have raised over £30,000 for them through sales of our dedicated GOSH collection and £1 donations at the checkout.

This week we went to the Great Ormond Street Hospital activity centre to give a group of children a special half-term icing lesson. Over the course of the morning the children dropped in to ice biscuits from our special GOSH collection, which is based on the ward names, so we had butterflies, elephants, dragonflies and ladybirds.

Here are some snaps of the kids getting creative under the watchful eye of our icer, Michelle…

Here’s Isabel getting arty with her icing techniques. She has been having treatment for the past 10 weeks at Great Ormond Street Hospital and hopes to be out by her birthday in July.

Louie iced a biscuit for each member of his family and had fun getting a bit messy with the icing!

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/out-and-about/our-visit-to-great-ormond-street-hospital/feed0Top 10 quirky Cafés around the worldhttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/top-10-quirky-cafes-around-the-world
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/top-10-quirky-cafes-around-the-world#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 11:30:25 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=11776Does London need another artisan coffee shop? Probably not. But team your flat white with a novelty amusement like playing board-games, stroking cats or icing gingerbread and you’ve got yourself a killer concept café. With two Biscuiteers Icing Cafes in the (piping) bag, we’re scouting out the top 10 quirky cafés around the world so you can get crafty over coffee, wherever you roam.

1. Central Perk Café, Liverpool, UK and Beijing, China.

Where else could you enjoy a cup of coffee with friends but in Central Perk itself? Central Perk opened last year in Liverpool and is a replica of the coffee shop set in FRIENDS that we all know. Beijing is another host to a Central Perk themed café – familiar surroundings to make you feel at home! You can enjoy coffee, tea, cake and sandwiches whilst watching an episode of FRIENDS all under this great themed café’s roof.

2. Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, Shoreditch, London

If you want to spend your afternoon with a group of feline friends, Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium is the café for you. Home to 12 rescue cats, you can book into the café to spend an hour and a half sipping tea and having a catch up whilst being surrounded by some furry friends. Afternoon Tea is offered at the Cat Emporium as well as Cat Yoga classes if you fancy it!

If you’re unable to visit Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium but still fancy a sweet treat, take a look at our Cool for Cats tin.

3. Draughts, Haggerston, London

For all board game enthusiasts, Draughts is a café which has over 500 board games ready for you to play! Pop down to the café with a group of friends for some nibbles and play the classics like Monopoly and Cluedo for as long as you like for a small price. Better get your game on!

4. Cereal Killer Café, Brick Lane, London

How about eating cereal not just for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner too? At the Cereal Killer café there are over 120 different types of cereal from around the world ready for you to feast on. There are a variety of milk choices and toppings too to suit your sweet needs. The café is also themed with 80’s and 90’s memorabilia to take you back to your childhood.

If you want to show off your artistic flare, why not pop down to one of our Biscuiteers Icing Boutiques. Here we offer icing classes where you can decorate biscuits from one of our themed tins. We have classes suitable for adults and children, and we’re happy to host your parties too! If you don’t fancy a class you can also pop by and browse our biscuit collections, have a spot of afternoon tea or ice some biscuits at your own pace.

Ziferblat has created a whole new concept of ‘meeting for a coffee’. Instead of paying for your drink, you pay for the time you spend at the café! For 3 pence a minute, you can sit relax, have a cuppa or amuse yourself by playing the piano. You receive your own personal alarm clock to log how much time you spend at Ziferblat, then it’s up to you how long you spend there and how you’d like to utilise your time!

Why not accompany your visit with some of our biscuits.

7. The Attendant, Foley Street, London

The Attendant café is definitely utilising the space of London. The Attendant’s owners refurbished a set of Victorian underground loos into a slick café. Although it sounds like a place you wouldn’t want to visit for socialising, the urinals now provide seating and this place is always heaving!

8. Mahikamano Hammock Café, Tokyo

In the high-tech city of Tokyo lies the Hammock café (literally). If you fancy a calming way to catch up with your friends the hammock café is the place to go. A time of 2 hours is allocated for you to enjoy your hammock. A very chilled way to have a cup of tea and a catch up if you ask us.

9. Ellen’s Stardust Diner, New York, USA

Fancy a song and dance with your morning cup of tea? Ellen’s Stardust Diner is ready to entertain with an all singing all dancing cast ready to wake you up at all times of the day. They serve food and drink whilst performing round the tables and put on small shows to entertain all the customers. You’ll be dazzled and ready for Broadway by the time you’ve finished your meal!

To take you all the way to New York from the comfort of your own home, take a look at our New York mini collection.

10. Dreamy Camera Café, Yangpyeong, South Korea

Talk about a picturesque spot to have a hot drink. The Dreamy Camera Café is café built in the shape of a Rolleiflex camera located in the mountains of South Korea. The large windows act as the lenses to the camera to provide a beautiful panoramic view. A great spot for any photography enthusiast to have a coffee in.

Let us know if you’ve been to any other unusually themed cafés. We think it’s about time to put the kettle on!

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/top-10-quirky-cafes-around-the-world/feed0How to make a bouquet of biscuit flowershttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/how-to-make-a-bunch-of-valentines-flowers
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/how-to-make-a-bunch-of-valentines-flowers#commentsFri, 06 Feb 2015 15:23:51 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=11391Whether you love or loathe Valentine’s Day, who can turn their nose up at a bunch of freshly baked flowers? If you’re looking to impress that special someone, or even cheer up your best pal, we think our edible biscuit bouquet is just the ticket. Edible gifts are the best, and with these blooming flowers, there’s no need to worry about pollen stains or daily watering, Perfecto!

Watch our video for a very easy tutorial on how to use line and flood icing techniques to decorate your flowers.

5. Once you have cut out all the biscuits you’ll need to insert the wooden biscuit pop sticks into the middle of the dough, twisting until it reaches halfway up the biscuit dough. It is important to do this carefully otherwise the stick could poke out the dough, and as a result, not hold the weight of the biscuit once cooked. You need to make sure the wooden stick is completely encased by the dough.

6. Repeat step 5 until all flower biscuits have a stem. Place all the biscuits on your baking tray on the middle shelf of your oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Remove from the oven and place the biscuits on a drying rack until cold to touch. Turn your oven down to 50ºC.

8. Whilst the biscuits are drying, make your flood and line icing. You will need to make a pink and red for the flood icing colours, and pink, red and white for your line icing.

9. Outline your flower biscuits using pink line icing and set to one side to dry for 10 minutes at room temperature. This line forms the wall, so that your flood icing stays in place.

10. Flood your biscuits using your runny icing in the squeezy bottles. You can use the nib of the bottle to guide the icing into place. Burst any air bubbles with your cocktail stick.

11. When the icing is still wet, use a complementary colour such as orange, and draw a circle just inside the petals. Distort the circle by dragging your cocktail stick from the centre of the flower towards the petal, then dragging the stick from the top of the petal towards the centre of the biscuit. You can use these techniques to create lots of different designs.

12. Place the biscuits in the oven which you have already pre-set to 50ºC for 40 minutes, or until the icing has set hard. Don’t be worried about putting the iced biscuits back in the oven. The oven will not cook the biscuit further. We use ovens to speed by the drying process and create a glossy smooth finish on the icing.

13. Once the icing has set hard, and they are cool, you can add more decoration on top, try adding some white line, dabbing into glimmer sugar and tapping off the excess, for extra pizazz.

14. Arrange your flowers in a vase, or tie them all together using ribbon. Add a swing tag, personalised for your that special someone!

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/how-to-make-a-bunch-of-valentines-flowers/feed0Nutella hot chocolate recipehttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/nutella-hot-chocolate-recipe
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/nutella-hot-chocolate-recipe#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 19:25:40 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=11303There’s a lot of excitement at Biscuiteers HQ about World Nutella Day on the 5th February and we’re celebrating with a morning cup of Nutella hot chocolate.

World Nutella Day, a global appreciation of all things Nutella, couldn’t come at a better time. We believe February should be about introducing the odd treat into your day (perhaps after a frugal January) and listen, do we even need to convince you of the sublimity of drinking Nutella?!

Ingredients

*Makes 2 deep mugs of hot-chocolate*

1 pt of milk

4tbsp Nutella

Whipped cream

Mini Marshmallows

Biscuits (for dunking)

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan gently heat 1 pint of milk.

2. Once the milk has come to the boil, stir in the Nutella with a balloon whisk and stir until it has combined with the milk and there are no more lumps. If you want to add any liqueurs, now is the time to do that.

3. Pour equal amounts of your Nutella hot chocolate into two separate mugs and top a dollop of whipped cream. Dust with cocoa powder and sprinkle with mini marshmallows.

]]>http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/nutella-hot-chocolate-recipe/feed1Red velvet hidden heart cake recipehttp://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/red-velvet-hidden-heart-cake-recipe
http://www.biscuiteers.com/blog/blog/recipes/red-velvet-hidden-heart-cake-recipe#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 12:37:07 +0000http://www.biscuiteers.com/?p=11197With Valentine’s Day just around the corner we’re making a hidden heart red velvet bundt cake with cream cheese icing; the perfect offering for your sweetheart or girlfriends. Who knows? It could be love at first bite!

The red velvet cake has become a national obsession, gracing cake parlours and high-street coffee shops up and down the country. Its fluffy chocolate undertones and cream-cheese tang is a flavour that stole the hearts of American confectionists, and we have to admit, we’ve been completely converted too.

Hidden heart red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting

*******

How to make the Madeira cake hidden hearts

* Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3.
* Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, with a tablespoon of the flour for each. Then gently mix in the rest of the flour.
* Bake for 1 hour or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool in the tin before turning out.
* Slice the loaf into 12 equal size portions, around 1 .5 inches thick
* Using a 7cm heart cutter, cut out your hearts using the middle of the slice (see below) and place on a plate. Then put the hearts in the fridge to cool.

How to make the red velvet cake

* Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan oven)/gas mark 6
* Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs gradually. Then the food colouring and beat everything until incorporated.
* Sift together the flour and cocoa then add half to the batter. Beat in the buttermilk and finally add the second half of the flour mixture.
* In a ramekin, mix together the bicarbonate of soda and the vinegar, which will fizz as you add them together. Add to your mixture immediately, folding everything in with a spatula.
* Add 1/3 of the batter to the bundt cake tin, then place the vanilla hearts, upside down (remember you’ll be turning the cake out, so the point of the heart should be poking up), securely in the batter. Arrange these in a fan shape around the centre point and be careful not to break the vanilla hearts when pushing into the batter.
* Carefully place the remaining red velvet cake batter around the vanilla hearts, taking care not to do not move them.
* Place in the oven, on a medium shelf, and cook for 40 minutes, or until well risen. Once cooked turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
* Whilst the cake is cooling make the cream cheese frosting.

How to make cream cheese frosting

* Beat the butter on its own for 4-5 minutes, then add the cream cheese and beat for another 2 minutes.
* Add the icing sugar and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes until smooth and evenly incorporated. You can add up to 50-100g of extra icing sugar if you require the frosting to be firmer.

* Once the cake has cooled spread the cream cheese frosting over it with a palette knife.

Don’t forget to slice the cake in front of your friends or your sweetheart and shh… don’t tell them how you made a heart appear inside the cake!